A fine visit to BC Wine Country

May 30, 2009
Kelowna/Westbank, BC

We're wrapping up a nice visit to BC wine country, and we'll be heading out for Calgary tomorrow morning. Once we got the Range Rover back, things really picked up.

On Wednesday evening, we had a nice visit with many of the folks staying in the park over pasta dinner. We met several of the people working on the long-term roads project; they're hard-working people, to be sure. Mary, the park owner, and Gerri (sp?), one of the long term residents, put out a nice spread of salad, pasta, and dessert, and we hung out until after dark. A nice time...

On Thursday, we got ready for a trip to some of the local wineries. Unfortunately, before we left Geri noticed that we had some water leaking under the kitchen sink. It turns out that it was coming from the instant hot water heater that we've been using (sans heat) to fill water bottles and the coffee maker. I installed an under-sink filter for this faucet before we left Arizona. For some reason, it involves a complicated water flow system (cold to the faucet, then to the heater, then from the heater, plus a vent of some kind). I made a quick trip to the plumbing shop across the street and put in a valve (which should have been in the line to begin with!), and we were good to go wining after sticking a fan under the sink to dry things out.

We went to two wineries that are relatively close to the RV park. Our first stop was Quail's Gate, where we tasted several varieties, preferring the Pinot Noir. Then, we were off to Mission Hill, which sports more stunning architecture but slightly lesser wines. We bought a few bottles at each, and we'll report on them as we go along.

Friday, we caught up on repairs: Geri had a manicure and I finished the bypass for the water leak. we were able to accomplish both within a few minutes of the park, since there was a plaza with a nail salon and a Home Depot across the street. I found a great deal on a small pressure washer at the local Wal-Mart, and gave the Rover and the coach a quick rinse. Since the grill was still out, we had steaks and baked potatoes, and Geri made a nice side dish with cauliflower in a Mornay sauce.

Today was another nice day, and we took advantage of it to make another winery run. Geri had made an appointment for the pups to have a "tubbie" at the local PetsMart, and while they were getting pretty we drove about 20km north to the Gray Monk Winery. We had a nice lunch in their restaurant overlooking the lake, and made it back to Kelowna just in time to pick up the pups.

Click here to see some pictures from the winery visits.

Back home, we did our normal pre-travel packing and dumping, so we're ready to roll in the morning. The park we're at is close to a Petro-Canada card-lock filling station, with nice high-volume diesel pumps. We subscribe to a service in the US ("Pacific Pride") that has a reciprocal agreement with Petro-Canada, so we'll be able to fill up there tomorrow morning before we head out. We'll probably overnight somewhere between Golden, BC, and Banff, AB, and plan to arrive in Calgary on Monday.